Govt shows proof Pereira was drunk

Accused can’t be termed drunk for merely consuming alcohol: HC

Alistair Pereira was drunk and the evidence was submitted to the court, the state government contended before the Bombay High Court on Tuesday. The government’s appeal seeking enhancement of the six-month sentence awarded to Pereira, accused in the infamous Carter Road hit-and-run incident of November 12, 2006, was heard by a division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Ranjana Desai. Arguments in the case will continue on Wednesday.

Arguing for the government, Advocate General Ravi Kadam told the court that Pereira was examined after the accident and 0.112 per cent of alcohol was detected in his blood, which is more than twice the normal level.

Kadam said that there were two different prosecution witnesses: Dr Nitin Barve who examined Pereira at Cooper Hospital and Dr Sharad Ruia who issued a certificate of examination. However, at the time of questioning before the court, the trial judge asked Barve if he had signed the certificate of examination and asked Ruia if he had examined Pereira, to which both of them replied in the negative.

However, Barve who examined Pereira had said that he had consumed alcohol, Kadam told the court. Chief Justice Kumar said that with mere consumption of alcohol, it cannot be inferred that he was ‘drunk’.

Refuting the trial court’s judgment further, Kadam said the photographs of the accident site that the trial court said did not match with the negatives. It was because there were two different sets of photographs taken – one by the police photographer and the other by the vehicle examiner at the Regional Traffic Authority (RTO).